Update on Austin's Little Things (22 Months)

For the first year of Austin's life, I kept a calendar baby book. Every day I would write down little things about him. I was glad when that year ended because by the end, I was trying to make mental notes of what to write and remember them for weeks at a time before I would finally write them down. It was hard to remember, and then I'd feel bad for not writing it down daily. Anyway, after that first year I pretty much stopped keeping track of any of the cute things about Austin, and I know I won't remember them all, so here's the SUPER LONG post to try and record all those little things (at least that most recent ones I can think of right now).

Austin was very slow to talk. For the longest time the only words he ever seemed to speak were mama, dada, ball and cracker. We were slightly concerned, but only slightly. I was very confident that he would talk when he was ready, but the doctor seemed a bit more concerned (granted, it is her job to catch problems early on) and therefore made me wonder if I was doing something wrong that was limiting his speech. Anyway, within the last couple of months his speech has taken off (although I think Parker and I are the only ones who can tell what he's saying), so I wanted to document the words of my cute little guy.

First word other than mama or dada was: "bah" for ball (by far his favorite toy) or "crahca" (or some similar variation) for cracker. FYI, wheat thins are preferred, teddy grahams are good, gold fish and Cheerios are acceptable.

Other words he can say in no particular order:
Nose
Eah (Ear)
Heh (Hair)
Ehbow (Elbow)
No (he learned this in the past couple weeks. It's awesome.)
Ah Duh (All done)
Uh oh
Uh now (Oh no)
Moh (More)
Dog
Ma (for Gram or Grandma)
Papa
Ehwah (Ella)
Tay Tay (For Uncle Taylor)
Mmm (don't know if that counts as a word, but he says it when he eats)
Hi
Bye (This involves a wave and, if your lucky, he'll blow you a kiss to go with it)
Bubble
Chess (Cheese)
Goga (Yogurt)
Nana (Banana)
Jesus
Whee (since turning his car seat forward facing he can now see out the front windshield. We randomly hear "whee" coming from the back seat as we drive. It's pretty cute, and a big contrast to the terrified whimpers we heard the first time he rode facing forward.)

I'm sure there's more... but that's all I can think of now.

He can sign:
more (which he seems to sign all. the. time. and is usually accompanied by the word craca)
all done
please
thank you (this sign frequently becomes a blown kiss)
book

If we say, "Austin, can you say __________ ?" he will almost always attempt it, but usually his "word"  doesn't sound very similar to our requested word.

He's pretty good about putting something back, or throwing something away when we ask him to (or don't ask him to. I honestly wonder what he's thrown away that I haven't caught). Lately I've been trying to teach him to put his own shoes away, and he's done it without a problem 4 out of 5 times. He's typically pretty good about cleaning up toys when we ask him to help us, but he won't do it on his own, we definitely have to be participating in the clean up to keep him on task.

He loves to be outside. The park is always a fun spot, and he particularly likes the swings and slides.

When the cabinet is unlocked, he loves to get the dishwasher tabs from under the kitchen sink and put them in the little compartment in the dishwasher.

He loves listening to music, but will really bust out his dance moves for One Direction

Diaper changes are torture. They usually involve a tantrum (varying degrees of severity) unless he's distracted with a cracker, or something on TV or a song. I've tell him that if he doesn't want his diaper changed he can start going potty on the toilet, but he doesn't seem to get it... yet. ;)

He gets beyond excited when we turn on the TV in hopes it might be a show for him. Usually the TV is off all day, but if we need to keep him distracted, the TV works very well for him. I try to avoid it because I think it's better for his brain, and he seems to be better behaved with absolutely no TV. Maybe that's all in my head, but I don't think so; TV makes him cranky. His favorite shows are Rio, Toy Story 2, The Lion King, and Blue's Clues. We have to keep the remote out of his little hands because he knows the one button to push to turn his show on and he does so any chance he gets.

Balls of any kind are his favorite toy. He's pretty good at throwing and kicking, but he's a little inconsistent with catching. He has a little fisher price basketball hoop that he can spend a lot of time playing with. He typically stands on a box to make him tall enough to make a basket, otherwise he's just too small to get it in and although he's persistent, he gets frustrated.

Austin loves the songs Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam and The Wheels on the Bus. He loves to do the actions especially to the verses for the Babies and Mommies on the bus.

Austin has always been really good for babysitters (at least as far as they tell us.) He never cries when we leave, and I think he enjoys having new people to play with. He goes to the daycare at the gym about 5 days a week, and again never has a problem going. He loves the nursery at church too. Hope I didn't just jinx myself.

He loves to play with our tablet. We have a hard time using it in front of him because he seems to think he should have full access to it whenever he wants. He's a pro at navigating it now. As I type this on the couch he's trying to use my laptop screen as a touch screen (it's not) to close the window.

We've had the same bedtime routine since Austin was about 4 months old. Around 8:00 or 8:30 we change his diaper, put on pajamas, brush his teeth, read a scripture story, read another book or two, turn off the light, say our family prayer, lay him down and that's it for the night until about 8:00 am the next morning. He's really a great sleeper, and takes a 2-3 hour nap around 1:00 in the afternoon every day.

Rose is Papa and Gram's black lab, and Austin adores her. Austin's a little wary of most dogs, but curious about them. Rose is his buddy at Gram's house and she is soooo good with him. I've never seem a better dog... she's so patient with his "petting" (he can be a little aggressive about it) and she minds very well.

There's the highlights I can think of now. Austin's a joy to have, really about as great as they get! He's such a sweet boy and we're so happy to have him!